The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If, in accordance with our goal, we are to continue throughout this winter with reflections that can tie in with the Gospel of Mark, then this goal must certainly be viewed in a broader sense, and it may only become clear after some time why one reflection or another that must be undertaken belongs precisely in this context. We will therefore have to discuss a few things today that seem quite far removed from our usual topic, but which will nevertheless be of great help to us in our further reflections.

[ 2 ] First, I would like to point out that outsiders will never understand one thing unless they have become reasonably familiar with the very essence of the spiritual science movement, namely: the significance and value, for those who do not yet possess clairvoyant abilities, of research that essentially has its sources—that is, its origins—in what we must call clairvoyant research. One might object: How can a belief, a conviction, or a faith in spiritual truths develop in those who cannot yet see into the spiritual worlds? - Here we must repeatedly draw attention to the other point: that while we cannot see into the spiritual worlds as long as the clairvoyant eye is not opened, the consequences and revelations of what is within those spiritual worlds continually emerge from them. So when clairvoyant research states that the human being consists of four constituent parts—the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I—then someone unfamiliar with clairvoyant research might say: I see only the physical body; how can I, before my karma grants me the ability to see, for example, the astral body or the etheric body, convince myself that what is said about these higher members of human nature is true? — Well, one can deny the astral body and the etheric body if one so desires. But the consequences of those processes that take place in the astral and etheric bodies cannot be dismissed from life; they manifest themselves in human life. And today, so that you may gradually come to understand the structure of the human being as it underlies many expressions in the Gospels, I would like to show you how the consequences of the processes taking place, for example, in the astral body or the etheric body, do indeed manifest themselves in quite ordinary life on the physical plane.

[ 3 ] Let us first consider the difference between a person who, in a certain sense, is full of idealism and sets high ideals for himself, and a person who is generally averse to setting high ideals for himself, who acts, so to speak, only under the external impulses of life—that is to say, eats when hungry, sleeps when sleepy, and does this or that when driven by this or that passion or instinct. Then, of course, there are all sorts of intermediate stages between these two types of people—between those just described and those who are, so to speak, high idealists and who, with their intentions, thoughts, and the grandeur of their ideals, always go beyond what they can achieve in ordinary life. Such idealists are, in general, in a peculiar position with regard to life. They must, after all, constantly convince themselves of the truth of the statement that it is never possible in the life of the physical plane to do anything that truly matches our highest ideal in a given field. This is the confession that idealists must make to themselves time and again: in my actions, I must inevitably fall short of my ideals. So, to speak precisely, we could say: The idealist always has something in his ideals—something he thinks about, to which he attaches his feelings—that is greater and broader than his actions. This is what characterizes the idealist in the spiritual-scientific sense: that his thoughts are greater and more comprehensive than his actions. Consider this carefully: an idealist is thus someone whose intentions and thoughts are greater than the possible works on the physical plane.

[ 4 ] Of the person who lives in the opposite way—the one described above—one can say the opposite: that he does not think as far ahead as he acts. Whoever acts solely out of instincts, passions, drives, desires, and so on does not have a single thought that encompasses everything he does at a given moment, but rather commits an act, a deed on the physical plane, that encompasses things and events about which he does not think. His intentions, his thoughts, are thus less far-reaching, are smaller than his actions, his works on the physical plane.

[ 5 ] Now the clairvoyant tells you something like this about these two kinds of people. When we perform an action or accomplish a work in life that is greater and more comprehensive than our thoughts, that work always casts a reflection into our astral body. But in fact, everything we do in life casts a reflection into our astral body. We cannot do anything in life without an image of the action remaining in our astral body once we have moved beyond the action itself. This image is later communicated to the etheric body as well, and just as it is communicated to the etheric body, it remains perceptible to the Akashic Records, so that a clairvoyant can see the mirror images of the actions a person has performed in the course of their life. Thus, even of those actions whose thoughts are greater than their execution—that is, those we perform out of idealism—reflections remain in the astral body, which in turn carry over into the etheric body. But this is the great difference between the reflections of actions arising from instincts, drives, passions, and so on, and the reflections of actions we perform out of idealism: all mirror images of the first kind have something in them that is, in a certain sense, destructive to our entire life. They are those images and inclusions in our astral body that gradually react upon our entire human being in such a way that they actually, one might say, slowly consume this human being. And these mirror images are essentially also connected with the slow way in which the human being consumes himself in his life until death—that is, in his being on the physical plane—while the mirror images that arise from what passes over from our thoughts into our actions have something invigorating about them. They are particularly stimulating for the etheric body, for they are the ones that continually bring new life-giving forces into our entire human being.

[ 6 ] So, according to the clairvoyant’s statements, we do indeed have devastating, destructive forces within our human nature on the physical plane, and we also have constantly life-giving forces within us. Now, as a rule, one can very well observe the effects of these forces in life. For example, there are people walking around in life who are grumpy, hypochondriacal, of a gloomy temperament, unable to cope with their own inner life, and this inner life in turn affects their physical organism. They have become anxious by nature, and one can observe how anxiety, when it persists indefinitely in life, undermines the organism’s health right down to the physical level. In short, there are people who, in later life, are melancholic, of a gloomy temperament, often struggle to cope with themselves, and are unbalanced in various ways. If we were now to investigate the causes of such behavior, we would find that such people have had little opportunity, in earlier periods of their physical existence, to experience what might be called: an idealistic transcendence of thoughts over human actions, a greatness of thought that surpasses action.

[ 7 ] One does not observe such things in everyday life, but the effects are certainly present. The effects are there, and many people feel these effects very strongly, perceiving them as their entire mood in life, as their entire state of mind, and also in their physical condition. So one might deny the existence of the astral body; but one cannot deny its consequences, for one experiences those consequences. And when what has just been described manifests itself in life, then people should realize that it is not entirely foolish to speak of such things—such as the argument that while the observation of supersensory events is possible only to the clairvoyant, the revelation of the facts observed clairvoyantly can always be demonstrated in life.

[ 8 ] In contrast, we see that actions which are smaller than their corresponding thoughts leave behind impressions that manifest later in life as a zest for life, a sense of security, and a sense of balance. This then extends into the inner workings of the physical organism, and one only notices the connections when one looks at life over a long period of time, rather than focusing on just short segments of life. This is, after all, the flaw in many scientific analyses: that one always determines the effect of this or that based on what happens over the next five years, whereas the effects of many things often only become apparent after decades.

[ 9 ] Now consider that, strictly speaking, one must say that there are not only people who are purely idealistic in nature—whose thoughts go beyond their individual experiences—and those whose thoughts always lag behind their experiences. For we have, for example, a great number of experiences that can be grasped in thought only with the greatest difficulty. Thus, eating and drinking are things that are done daily out of impulse, out of instinct, and it really takes quite a long time before the person undergoing spiritual development incorporates these things, so to speak, into their spiritual life. It is precisely the everyday things that are most difficult to incorporate into spiritual life, for we have only incorporated eating and drinking when we can trace why, in order to serve the entire course of the world, we must take physical substances into ourselves in a rhythmic process, and what relationship the physical substances have to spiritual life; how metabolism is not merely something physical, but through its rhythm also possesses a spiritual aspect.

[ 10 ] However, there is a way to gradually spiritualize these things that are not merely dictated by some external material necessity. For there is indeed the possibility of viewing these things in such a way that we say to ourselves: We eat this or that fruit, and through our spiritual insights we can at least form an idea of how, say, an apple or any other fruit relates to the whole of the universe. — But that takes a long time. Then we accustom ourselves not to let eating be merely a material fact, but we accustom ourselves to observe, for example, what part the spirit plays in the ripening of a fruit in the sun’s rays. Thus we spiritualize even the most material, everyday processes and gain the ability to penetrate them with our thoughts; I can only hint at this here, as well as how thoughts and ideas can be introduced into them. But this is a long road, and very few people in our age are able to think fully and validly about eating.

[ 11 ] We must therefore say that there are not only people who act instinctively and those who act idealistically, but that in every person, life is divided in such a way that some of their actions are performed in a manner where thoughts cannot keep up with the actions, and others where thoughts and ideals have a greater scope than the actions. Therefore, we have within us a kind of force that leads our life downward; these forces work to ensure that our physical organism gradually matures, so to speak, toward death for inner reasons. And we have other forces within us that supply our astral and etheric bodies with life-giving forces—forces that continually shine forth like a new light in our astral and etheric bodies. It is these latter forces that truly remain as life-giving forces in our etheric body. When we then leave our physical bodies after death with our spiritual aspect, we still have—in the first days after death—the etheric body with us and thereby have that retrospective view of our entire life. And the best thing that now remains with us as an inner image are the very vitalizing forces just mentioned, which originate from the fact that our ideas have transcended the scope of our actions. This is something that continues to have an effect beyond death, containing further vitalizing forces, even for the next incarnation.

[ 12 ] Therefore, we may say: Whatever we instill in ourselves as vitalizing forces remains in the etheric body and constitutes a lasting force of youth. And even if we do not thereby prolong our lives, we must still say that we can shape our lives so that they remain youthful and fresh for longer by performing many actions in such a way that our thoughts transcend the scope of the action.

[ 13 ] If a person asks how they can attain ideals that most effectively influence our actions, we can say: This is possible if we engage with spiritual science, which leads us into the supersensible worlds. - When, for example, we hear about the development of humanity in our solar system from the perspective of spiritual science, such teachings stir forces within our higher aspects of being, and through this we gain, especially in today’s world, the most concrete and certain form of idealism. If the question is: What purpose does spiritual science serve in particular, apart from everything else?—then we can say: It pours youthful, life-giving forces into our astral and etheric bodies.

[ 14 ] People have such varied attitudes toward what we call spiritual science, not because they are not clairvoyant as people of the present, but because they do not wish to observe even in their outer lives. Otherwise, they would already see the various ways in which even the human organism expresses what we initially call the spiritual-soul human being. Then people who stand outside in the world and are thoroughly skeptical of spiritual science might hear: Spiritual science says that the human physical body is filled with certain higher members. Let us take these together and call them the soul-spiritual human being. But the materialists of today do not want to believe in this soul-spiritual human being; they believe only in the physical human being and thereby become materialists, particularly with regard to the physical human being. By “materialists,” people often mean only the theoretical materialists who believe only in matter. But I have emphasized this time and again: these theoretical materialists are not the worst. For such a materialist can also be one who derives his concepts solely from the intellect, and these are, in any case, the most short-sighted concepts. Therefore, materialism based solely on the intellect cannot be so harmful. But where it is reinforced by other factors, it can become quite harmful to the whole of a person’s life—and especially when a person clings to their matter, to their physical substance, with their innermost spiritual core.

[ 15 ] And how dependent humanity is on matter, especially in our age! The existence of theoretical materialists is seductive in terms of ideas and fatal in terms of what is actually supposed to shape our souls; but our external life is particularly influenced by the fact that there are so many materialists in practical life. What is a materialist in practical life? It is a person who is so dependent on physical matter that he can only spend the winter in his office for a few months and must be on the Riviera in the summer, if he wants to live at all. There he is entirely dependent on material activity, on material combinations. These are materialists in practical life. One becomes a materialist by being entirely dependent on the material, by being compelled to let one’s soul chase after the needs that life dictates to us. This is a very different kind of materialist from the one who lives materialism merely in thoughts and ideas. Theoretical idealism may perhaps still lead to the conviction that theoretical materialism is false. But to cure the practical materialist, to cure our dependence on the material aspects of the physical body—this can only be achieved through true immersion in spiritual science.

[ 16 ] Now, if people were only willing to think—that is, to think thoughts that arise not merely from the intellect but from a connection with reality—they could deduce from entirely everyday facts that there is a great difference, let us say, between the individual members of the human being. I will first point out a difference that exists, for example, between the hands and some other part of the human body, such as the shoulders. If we examine the physical human being merely externally, in a material sense, we find physical differences, for example, regarding the course of the nerves and the like. But we must bear in mind that we can exert a certain influence on this nerve pathway. If the nerve pathway alone were decisive for the soul, we would be dependent on material effects, for the nerve pathway is a material effect. But that is not the case at all, for we do have an influence on the course of the nerves—and in the most varied ways—precisely because the manner in which our astral body and etheric body act, that is, the spiritual-soul part of the human being, is the most diverse. We must not simply say: Your physical body is filled with the astral body and the etheric body—but it varies depending on whether we take the part that fills the hands, or the one we place in the shoulders or the like. These different spiritual parts act differently; one could easily convince oneself of this. One must simply be clear that what happens in life corresponds to necessity, and that one must not thoughtlessly pursue what happens in life. If a certain air current is not right, the physicist can reflect, using his laws, on why the air current has directed itself toward the region in question. But why do people not reflect on what immense significance it has in life—it may seem strange that such a thing can be brought up, but it is precisely in everyday phenomena that the clairvoyant’s insights are confirmed—that in life a person really does wash their hands more often than any other part of their body? That is, in any case, a fact. And it is also a fact that there are people who wash their hands often and gladly, and others who are less inclined to do so. Such a fact, which seems quite trivial, is in reality connected with the highest insights. When the clairvoyant looks at a person’s hands, they are indeed wonderfully different from all other limbs, even from the face. Radiant formations of the etheric body emanate from the fingers and shine far into the surrounding space, extending into the space at times glowing faintly, at times piercingly. Depending on whether a person is happy or sad, their fingers radiate differently, and the back of the hand radiates differently from the inner palm. And for those who know how to observe spiritually, the hand—with its etheric and astral components—is a truly wondrous formation. Yet everything in our surroundings, even if it is matter, is a manifestation of the spirit. Matter is to the spiritual as ice is to water; it is formed out of the spiritual. If you will, you may say it is condensed spirit. So when we enter into a relationship with any material substance, we are entering into a relationship with the spiritual within that substance. All our contact with matter is, in truth, insofar as it is material, Maya. In truth, it is the spirit with which we enter into some kind of relationship.

[ 17 ] The way in which we connect with the spirit in water when we wash our hands is such that, if one knows how to observe life with sensitivity, one must say that how often a person washes their hands has a great influence on their overall mood. There are people who have a certain fondness for washing their hands; if there is any dirt on their hands, they simply cannot help but wash it off. These are the people who, in a very specific way, have—or develop—a certain relationship, namely with their surroundings. This is not limited merely to the material realm, but it is as if subtle forces within the material world begin to act upon the person when they establish the described relationship between their hands and the element of water. Such people will already show us in life that they become, in a certain way—and in a healthy sense—more sensitive, perceptive individuals, observing more keenly, for example, whether a person with a brutal disposition or a good-natured one is standing near them, whereas people who tolerate dirt on their hands are in fact coarser in nature and indeed show that they erect something like walls between themselves and the more intimate relationships in their surroundings. This is the case, and you can observe it ethnographically yourself if you wish. Travel through the countries and try to observe the people. It is possible to say that hands are washed more frequently in some places than others. Examine how relationships between people are; how very different the relationship between friend and friend, or acquaintance and acquaintance, is in areas where hands are washed more often than in areas where people erect a wall by washing their hands less frequently.

[ 18 ] These things hold true like a law of nature. Other circumstances can obscure this. When we throw a stone through the air, the trajectory forms a parabola. But if the stone is caught by a gust of wind, the parabola is no longer there. This shows, then, that one must know the methodology in order to observe certain conditions correctly. — But where does this come from? It comes from the fact that the clairvoyant consciousness perceives how the spiritual-soul aspect subtly permeates the hands. This is even the case to such an extent that a particular relationship between water and the hands is established. This is less the case for the human face, and least of all for the other parts of the human body’s surface. This should not, however, be understood as representing any opposition to bathing and washing, but rather as shedding light on the relevant conditions.

[ 19 ] This is proof that the spiritual-soul aspect of the human being, so to speak, stands in a very different relationship to the various parts of the body, and that it manifests itself, so to speak, in different ways in the various parts. You will hardly ever see anyone’s astral body being harmed by washing their hands too often. One must simply consider this in all its implications. This stems from the fact that it is true that the relationship established between the human being and the environment—namely between the human astral body and the environment—is healthily influenced by the relationship of the hands to water. Therefore, even in this area, excess is not easily possible. But if one thinks materialistically and clings entirely to matter in one’s thoughts, one will say: What is good for the hands is good for the rest of the body—and thus fails to recognize the distinction that lies in this subtlety. And the result is what has become abundantly clear: that for certain things, the human body is treated in the same way. For example, a very specific therapeutic method is recommended that involves subjecting even children, time and again, to so-called cold rubdowns and cold washings to a great extent. Fortunately, even today medical professionals are beginning to realize—due to the effects on the nervous system—that these methods have been taken to absurd extremes. For—because of the special relationship between the astral body and the hands—what may be beneficial for the hands can quickly degenerate into a harmful experiment where the body stands in a different relationship to the astral body. Where, therefore, washing the hands evokes a healthy sensitivity to the surroundings, an excessive regimen of cold washes and the like induces an unhealthy hypersensitivity and similar conditions, which often—especially when such a regimen is practiced in childhood—remain for the rest of one’s life. That is why it is essential everywhere to know the limits, and these will only be recognized when people are willing to accept that the higher members of the being are integrated into the physical body. Then it will also be recognized that the parts of the physical body situated more inwardly—what we thus have as instruments in our physical body—are supplied in very different ways by the spiritual-soul being. Thus, one will have to acknowledge that everything pertaining to the glands is, to a special degree, an instrument of the etheric body, whereas everything pertaining to the nervous system—for example, the brain—stands in an intimate relationship to the astral body.

[ 20 ] People will never be able to understand why certain phenomena exist if they do not take such things into account. First of all, materialists are mistaken in that they focus solely on the instrument in everything. For everything we experience, we experience in the soul, and the fact that we are conscious of it depends on our physical body reflecting these things back to us, so that our physical body is merely an instrument for whatever is taking place in the soul. The spiritual scientist is certainly clear about this. But this physical body is an instrument in various ways. This often comes to light in quite remarkable ways. I need only point to one thing: the very peculiar significance of our thyroid gland. You know, the thyroid gland was regarded as an insignificant organ and removed in cases of disease, and in such cases the people concerned fell into idiocy. But if even a part of the thyroid gland remains, this danger is essentially eliminated. This shows that the secretion of the thyroid gland is necessary for the unfolding of certain aspects of the soul life. Now here is something very peculiar: if one administers the secretion of a sheep’s thyroid gland to people who have lost their thyroid gland, it turns out that the idiocy is reversed; and if one withdraws it again, they become idiotic once more.

[ 21 ] A materialist might find much to his liking in this. But the scholar of the humanities will know how to judge such a matter in the proper sense. We do indeed see the peculiar fact that we are actually dealing with an organ whose product we can introduce directly into our organism, and then it takes effect. This is only the case with all those organs that have an intimate relationship with our etheric body, so that we can say: Something like what happens with the thyroid gland is only possible where a certain relationship to the etheric body exists. Where a similar relationship to the astral body exists, the same is not possible. I have met people of more or less limited intelligence who have eaten sheep brains and have not become any wiser. This shows that there is again a great difference between the individual organs. This difference is so considerable simply because one group of organs has an inner relationship to the etheric body, while the other has an inner relationship to the astral body. From this, something quite special emerges for spiritual contemplation.

[ 22 ] It does seem very strange that a person becomes, so to speak, stupid when his thyroid gland is missing, and that he becomes intelligent again when thyroid secretion is administered to him. This seems strange because it is hard to see how his brain could be impaired by this. Here, however, you have another point where external observation of human beings should necessarily lead to a spiritual-scientific perspective. For spiritual science shows that a person does not become stupid at all when their thyroid gland is removed. But, you will say, the facts show that a person does become stupid! — In reality, however, people do not become idiotic because they cannot think, but because they lack the ability to use a tool for paying attention to their surroundings. They do not become idiots because they lack intelligence, but because they become dull to their surroundings. And becoming numb is different from losing one’s mind. You don’t need to have lost your mind if you don’t use it, because you haven’t developed the ability to pay attention. If you don’t think about something, you can’t express an opinion about it; you have to think first if you want to take a stance on something. Empathy, that lively interest in things, is undermined when the thyroid gland is removed. People are rendered apathetic, to such an extent that they do not use their intellect.

[ 23 ] Here you have the subtle distinction between the use of a tool for the mind, such as parts of the brain, and a tool related to a gland, such as the thyroid gland. In this way, we can shed light on how our physical body functions as a tool, and if we are attentive, we will also be able to distinguish between the various parts of the human being.

[ 24 ] We can also say that the ego manifests itself in a wide variety of ways in its relationship to the environment. Here, certain aspects of the ego come into play that I have already described from other perspectives: that the human being, through his ego, so to speak, turns more inward, that he attempts to become aware of himself—or, conversely, he opens himself more to the external world, striving to establish a connection with it. In a certain sense, we become aware of our ego when we turn our gaze inward, when we have cause to reflect on what life gives us, what it withholds from us, and so on. That is when we become aware of our ego. Or we become aware of it when we come into contact with the external world, for example, when we bump into a stone. Or when we cannot solve a problem, we become aware of our ego as one that is powerless in the face of the conditions of the outside world, and so on. In short, we can become aware of our ego through ourselves and also through the outside world. Human beings become particularly aware of their ego when that magical connection to other people or the environment arises, which we call compassion or sympathy. There it becomes truly evident that a magical effect passes from soul to soul, from spirit to spirit. For we feel something that is happening out there in the world—what is felt and thought there—once again within ourselves; we experience something spiritual and soulful that is happening outside, within ourselves as well. There we truly immerse ourselves in our inner being. For compassion, empathy, is an inner soul experience. And if our ego is not quite up to these experiences and needs to strengthen itself, this is expressed in grief purely in the soul, and in the tear itself physically. For grief is the soul experience through which the ego feels stronger in the face of an external experience than it would feel in the face of indifference. Grief is always an inner intensification of the ego’s activity. Grief intensifies the content and intensity of the ego, and the tear is merely the expression of the fact that the ego is indeed making an effort at that very moment to experience more within itself than it would in a state of indifference.

[ 25 ] We must therefore admire the poetic imagination of the young Goethe, which is deeply connected to the mysteries of the world; he allows Faust’s weakness regarding his ego to develop to the point where Faust initially seeks to physically annihilate his ego, driven even to the brink of suicide. Then the Easter bells ring out, and at their sound the ego begins to feel stronger, and this precisely because the sign rises in Faust’s soul that is otherwise the sign of mourning: “The tear wells up, the earth has me again!” That is to say, that which belongs to the earth has been strengthened as the tears spring to his eyes. Here we see the inner growth of the ego’s intensity expressed in the tear.

[ 26 ] In what we know as cheerfulness or laughter, we again find something connected to the strength or weakness of our ego in relation to the outside world. Cheerfulness or laughter signify that our ego feels stronger in terms of recognizing and understanding things and events. In laughter, our ego contracts, intensifying itself to such an extent that it easily spills over into the surroundings. This is expressed in cheerfulness, in the way we amuse ourselves. Related to this is the fact that sadness is, fundamentally, something that a person is meant to experience—or at least a healthy person wants to experience it this way—in such a way that the cause of this sadness is reality. Whatever in reality affects us in such a way that we feel compelled, through our own participation, to elevate our ego in its inner activity—that is precisely what can put us in a sorrowful mood. But if sadness is to be based on something that is not real, but rather, for example, a mere artistic representation of something intended solely to make one sad, then a person who thinks clearly feels that they need something else in order to face such a situation as a whole. They feel that what makes them sad must be accompanied, so to speak, by the inkling that what causes sorrow can be overcome by that which conquers misery. This is merely to be hinted at today, to be further developed on another occasion. The healthy soul feels within itself the urge to rise up, to fill itself in the face of mere misery. As for the mere imitation of misery, a not entirely healthy nature is already required if there is no prospect in this imitation that a victory over misery is possible. Therefore, we demand of drama that there be a prospect of victory for the personality that has fallen into misery. This cannot be arbitrarily decreed by an aesthetic or arranged in such a way that only the trivial elements of life are depicted; rather, it will become apparent here that the person who fully surrenders to his healthy nature is, in fact, so to speak, unable to cope with his ego when confronted solely with imitated misery. It takes the full force of reality for our ego to rouse itself to compassion.

[ 27 ] Try to feel it in your soul: isn’t it quite different when it comes to the humor that surrounds us? In a certain sense, it takes a monster to laugh at real folly. We cannot laugh at the folly we encounter in reality. On the other hand, it is tremendously healthy to laugh at the folly that is portrayed. And it was a healthy folk remedy when, in burlesques and comedic performances, people were shown how the folly of human action reduces itself to absurdity. When our ego is prompted to rise above, in laughter, what is recognized as folly in that context, it is precisely strengthened by the sight of the folly presented to us artistically, and there is no healthier laughter than that which is evoked by artistically depicted folly, whereas it is inhuman to laugh at what happens to a fellow human being or at a real fool. Therefore, a different set of principles applies if these things are to have the right effect as a representation.

[ 28 ] If we are to strengthen our sense of self through compassion, then we must acknowledge that we can do so most effectively when we are confronted with the reality of the situation that evokes our compassion. In contrast, as healthy individuals, we demand that the depicted reality of misery allow us to sense within it the possibility of triumph over that misery. And in the case of the dying hero of tragedy, where we do indeed have death before our eyes in art, we feel that this death symbolizes the victory of the spirit over the physical. The situation is reversed when we relate the self to the external world. There we feel that, in the face of reality, we cannot actually arrive at cheerfulness or laughter in the proper way, but that we come to laugh primarily through what is more or less removed from reality, what has more or less nothing to do with reality. If a misfortune befalls a person that does not particularly harm them and that has little connection to the reality of life, then we can indeed laugh at their misfortune. But the more what we experience is related to reality, the less we can laugh once our understanding rises above it.

[ 29 ] From this we see that our ego has a distinct relationship to reality. This diversity of facts, however, shows us that there is a connection everywhere, even with the greatest. We have learned in various lectures that in the ancient initiation there were two different paths to the spiritual: one path was immersion into one’s own inner self, into the microcosm; the other was living out into the macrocosm, into the greater world. Now, everything that unfolds in the greater world is already evident in the smallest things. The way in which a person descends into their own inner self in everyday life is revealed to us in grief; and the way in which a person can express themselves in the outer world is revealed in the ability with which they can grasp the connection between such events that appear to them as disconnected in life. In this, the superiority of the ego is revealed. And we have heard that the ego, which does not lose itself, can only be guided through the initiation that leads into the external world. Otherwise, it loses itself and, instead of leading into the external world, can only lead into what appears to it as nothingness.

[ 30 ] The smallest things are connected to the greatest. That is why, in spiritual science—where we so often rise to the highest spheres—we must occasionally venture into the spheres that belong to the most everyday of matters. Next time, let us make use of what we have characterized today when we once again engage with higher spheres.